Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is an English theatre director and lyricist. He has been the artistic director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal Haymarket. He has directed dramas for the stage, including Macbeth, as well as opera and musicals, such as Cats (1981) and Les Misérables (1985).
Nunn has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, winning Tonys for Cats, Les Misérables, and Nicholas Nickleby and the Olivier Awards for productions of Summerfolk, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida, and Nicholas Nickleby. In 2008, The Telegraph named Nunn among the most influential people in British culture. He has also directed works for film and television.
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Early years
Trevor Nunn was born on 14 January 1940 in Ipswich, England, to Dorothy May Piper and Robert Alexander Nunn, a cabinetmaker. As a small boy, Trevor loved reading but his parents had little money for books. However, an aunt had more books, including the complete works of Shakespeare which he read whenever the family visited her. In the end, his aunt gave it to him.
He was educated at Northgate Grammar School, Ipswich, and Downing College, Cambridge. At Northgate, he had an inspiring English teacher, Peter Hewett, who also directed the school plays. Hewett encouraged him to sit the scholarship exam in Cambridge in the hope of studying under F. R. Leavis at Downing. Hewett also persuaded the headmaster to help with the cost of Nunn staying in Cambridge to take the exam. Nunn's father could not afford it and the headmaster had refused at first so Nunn was close to giving up. At Downing, Nunn began his stage career and first met contemporaries Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi. In 1962, he directed Macbeth for The Marlowe Society and he directed that year's Footlights. He also won a director's scholarship, becoming a trainee director at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry.
Career
In 1964, Nunn joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and in 1968 he was appointed its artistic director, a position he held until 1986 (latterly with Terry Hands from 1978).
Nunn's first wife, Janet Suzman, appeared in many of his productions, such as the 1974 televised version of his Antony and Cleopatra. Nunn directed the RSC production of Macbeth starring Ian McKellen in the title role and Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth in 1976. Nunn staged the action of the drama with not only the paying audience, but also the audience of all of the actors in the production not in the ongoing scene—they sat on wooden crates just beyond the main playing space.
Nunn became a leading figure in theatrical circles, and was responsible for many significant productions, such as the RSC's version of Dickens's The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, co-directed with John Caird, and a 1976 musical adaptation of the Shakespeare play The Comedy of Errors.
A director of musicals in the non-subsidised sector, Nunn directed Cats (1981), formerly the longest running musical in Broadway's history, and the first English production of Les Misérables in 1985, also with John Caird, which ran in London until the summer of 2019. Nunn also directed the little-known 1986 Webber–Rice musical Cricket, at Windsor Castle. Besides Cats and Les Misérables, Nunn's other musical credits include Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard. In September 1997, he became the Royal National Theatre's artistic director, a position he retained until 2003.
Later London credits include My Fair Lady, South Pacific (at the Royal National Theatre), The Woman in White, Othello and Acorn Antiques: The Musical! (2005), The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Rock 'n' Roll and Porgy and Bess in 2006 at the Savoy Theatre (an abridged version with dialogue instead of recitatives, unlike Nunn's first production of the opera).
He directed We Happy Few, a play by his third wife Imogen Stubbs, in 2004. Stubbs often appears in his productions, including the 1996 Twelfth Night film. Nunn directed a modern production of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 2004, which starred Ben Whishaw in the title role, and Imogen Stubbs as Gertrude, and was staged at The Old Vic theatre in London.
Film and opera
Nunn has directed opera at Glyndebourne. He re-staged his Glyndebourne production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess for television in 1993, and was highly praised.
He has directed for film, including Lady Jane (1986), Hedda, an adaptation of Hedda Gabler, and a 1996 film version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
Personal life
Nunn has been married three times and has five children. He was married to actress Janet Suzman from 17 October 1969 until their divorce in 1986. They have one son. From 1986 until their 1991 divorce, he was married to Sharon Lee-Hill, with whom he has two children, including Laurie.
In 1994, he married actress Imogen Stubbs with whom he has two children, including Ellie. In April 2011 Stubbs announced their separation.
Nunn was in a brief relationship with Nancy Dell'Olio in 2011.
In 1998, Nunn was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party. In 2002, he was knighted.
In 2014, Nunn told The Telegraph that Shakespeare was his religion. "Shakespeare has more wisdom and insight about our lives, about how to live and how not to live, how to forgive and how to understand our fellow creatures, than any religious tract. One hundred times more than the Bible. I'm sorry to say that. But over and over again in the plays there is an understanding of the human condition that doesn't exist in religious books."
Credits
Broadway
Source: Internet Broadway Database
A Midsummer Night's Dream (as original producer) – 20 January 1971 – 13 March 1971
Old Times (as original producer) – 16 November 1971 – 26 February 1972
London Assurance (as original producer) – 5 December 1974 – 12 January 1975
Sherlock Holmes (as original producer) – 12 November 1974 – 4 January 1976
Piaf – 5 February 1981 – 28 June 1981
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – 4 October 1981 – 3 January 1982
All's Well That Ends Well – 13 April 1983 – 15 May 1983
Good (as original producer) – 13 October 1982 – 30 January 1983
André De Shields' Harlem Nocturne (featuring songs with lyrics by Trevor Nunn) – 18 November 1984 – 30 December 1984
Cyrano de Bergerac (as original producer) – 16 October 1984 – 19 January 1985
Much Ado About Nothing (as original producer) – 14 October 1984 – 16 January 1985
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – 24 August 1986 – 12 October 1986
Chess – 28 April 1988 – 25 June 1988
Starlight Express – 15 March 1987 – 8 January 1989
West End
Source: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Cats – 1981
Starlight Express – 1984
Les Misérables – 1985
Chess – 1986
The Baker's Wife – 1989
Aspects of Love – 1989
Sunset Boulevard – 1993
Oklahoma! – 1998
South Pacific – 2001
My Fair Lady – 2001
Anything Goes – 2002
The Woman in White – 2004
We Happy Few - 2004
Acorn Antiques: The Musical! – 2005
Porgy and Bess – 2006
Royal Hunt of the Sun - 2006
King Lear – 2007
The Seagull – 2007
Gone with the Wind – 2008
A Little Night Music – 2009
Inherit the Wind – 2009
Birdsong – 2010
Aspects of Love – 2010
The Lion in Winter – 2011
Flare Path – 2011
Film
Source: Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors
Hedda (director and adaptation) (1975)
Lady Jane (director) (1986)
Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (director and adaptation) (1996)
King Lear (director) (2008)
Red Joan (director) (2018)
Prisoner C33 (2022)
Television
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1979)
BBC2 Playhouse (TV series) – (1 episode, 1979)
The Three Sisters (1981 TV movie of Chekhov's Three Sisters (play))
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1982 TV mini-series)
Othello (1990 TV movie)
Porgy and Bess (1993 TV movie of Nunn's Glyndebourne production)
Oklahoma! (1999 TV movie)
The Merchant of Venice (2001 TV movie)
King Lear (2008 TV Movie)
Series Shakespeare Uncovered, season 1, episode 4 (2012) The Tempest
Awards and nominations
Sources: Internet Broadway Database, Tony Awards Database (broadwayworld.com), Drama Desk History, Olivier Awards: Past Nominees and Winners
